February 20 Notebook

By John Antonik for MSNsportsNET.com
February 20, 2007

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- A couple of weeks ago some Pitt Panther players talked about how difficult it can be playing at the WVU Coliseum. There were several theories thrown out. Junior guard Keith Benjamin said the Coliseum is one of the darkest arenas in the league.


	A long line of students wait outside for West Virginia's game against No. 2-ranked UCLA on Saturday, Feb. 10. All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks

“I would call it a dull yellow,” he said. “It’s hard to shoot in that gym.”

Senior forward Levon Kendall believes it’s the WVU students that sit right on top of the court that make things so difficult for opposing teams. “Their fans almost always are the most ruthless,” he said. “They have a really big student section. Everyone is right on top of you.”

Benjamin is convinced the court isn’t regulation size, saying it was “crooked” before the two teams played on Feb. 7. “There is something about that gym that just doesn’t work for me,” Benjamin said.

Those comments drew a pretty good laugh out of senior forward Frank Young after West Virginia’s 75-70 victory over No. 2 UCLA on Feb. 10.

“I’m pretty sure that the floor is regulation and everything,” he said.

“The one difference from playing on the road and playing at home is the fans are really on top of you here,” Young added. “When you go out of bounds they’re right there. It gives you that feeling that they’re on top of you and they can almost attack you at any time.”

Young says the noise can be intimidating for teams, too, especially when the student section is packed. UCLA coach Ben Howland resorted to using cards to communicate with his players when the team was at the other end of the floor.

“It gets loud in here to where you can’t hear anything,” Young said. “It’s hard for us to yell to each other because it’s so loud. It’s definitely a tough place to play for opposing teams.”

West Virginia is 37-6 at the Coliseum the last three years under John Beilein. Twelve of the Mountaineers’ last 15 Big East home games have been played before crowds of more than 10,000.

Briefly:

Bobby Knight once said of sportswriters, “We all learned to write in the second grade; most of us moved on to bigger and better things.”

I can only guess what Knight would have said had he picked up the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last Saturday. A PG columnist came to the conclusion that the Panthers need to recruit better basketball players after taking a couple of days to digest Pitt’s 66-53 loss to Louisville.

The Panthers have lost four times this year to teams that are ranked No. 1, No. 16, No. 20, and to another team that is receiving Top 25 votes.

A victory at Seton Hall Monday night makes Pitt's record 24-4. Yeah, Jamie Dixon needs to start signing some blue chippers.

I keep reading that Pitt is getting some of the best football recruits in the country but yet is struggling to win half its football games. On the other hand, the Panther basketball team is currently ranked eighth in the nation but needs to improve their recruiting.

I’m confused, too.

The word up in Piscataway is that Rutgers had its best football recruiting class ever. The Scarlet Knights landed 10 coveted Garden State prospects including all-USA Today offensive lineman Anthony Davis.

Rutgers also recently announced that Coach Greg Schiano has agreed to a four-year contract extension that will increase his salary to $1.7 million per year. With incentives it could reach $2 million per year. Schiano has a $1 million buy-out clause.

Rutgers went 11-2 last year and defeated Kansas State in the inaugural Texas Bowl.

Last week it was announced that West Virginia’s game at South Florida has been moved to Friday, Sept. 28, and will be televised nationally on ESPN2 in prime time.

ABC is also considering picking up West Virginia’s game at Rutgers on Oct. 27 for a prime time telecast. The Mountaineers already have a pair of Thursday night prime-time dates against Maryland and Louisville.


	Jerry West

I’ve been to what seems like a million Jerry West dedications and ceremonies at WVU over the years and I can honestly say that I could go to a million more. West was deeply touched when he learned that the 2007 West Virginia University senior class made a contribution to the construction of the statue of his likeness that sits outside the WVU Coliseum Blue Gate.

Coach Sergio Lopez’s Mountaineer men’s swimming team captured 15 of 20 events at last weekend’s Big East swimming and diving championships. The only events West Virginia didn’t win were the 1 and 3-meter dives, the 200 IM, the 200 backstroke and the 200 breaststroke.

That’s nearly twice as many Big East titles as the Mountaineers won last year (eight).

Second-place Notre Dame didn’t claim a single Big East title, but overwhelming team depth kept the Irish to within 4.5 points of the Mountaineers.

Lopez has just three seniors on this year’s men’s roster.

South Florida folks are really high on Hargrave Military (Va.) Academy running back Mike Ford, a native of Sarasota, Fla. Ford signed with Alabama out of high school before going to prep school. The 6-foot-2-inch, 210-pounder and current Tennessee Titan Travis Henry are the only two Florida high school players to have run for more than 200 yards in 11 straight games.

West Virginia recently conducted walk-on tryouts and has added six new players to the spring roster from those tryouts. They are kickers Keith Coffindaffer and Alex Campbell, long snapper Brad Lohr, linebacker Robert Mary, tight end Jeremy Booker and wide receiver Julian Hooks.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the controversial “clock rule” has been rescinded and the NCAA rules committee is planning on implementing a new set of time-saving initiatives. According to Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville, the plays are back but the “standing around time” is gone.

Another major rule change for next year is kickoffs will be at the 30 instead of the 35, providing more opportunities for kickoff returns.

As hard as it is to believe, this year marks the first time in John Beilein’s 29-year coaching career that he has managed to win 20 games three straight times. He won 20 in back-to-back seasons four times, including most recently at Richmond in 2001 and 2002.

The last WVU coach to win 20 games three straight years was Gale Catlett from 1985-87.

Catlett won 20 games a school-record seven straight years from 1981 to 1987, reaching the NCAA tournament five times. Fred Schaus won 20 games in five of his six years at West Virginia and George King won 20 games three straight years from 1961 to 1963.


	Rick Gilliam

We received the very sad news that former Mountaineer offensive lineman Rick Gilliam died last week. More than 700 turned out for a memorial service at Big Spring (Pa.) High School to say their good-byes to Gilliam, who died unexpectedly at 29. The cause of death has not been determined.

Gilliam was a four-year letterman at WVU and was a starting center on the Mountaineers’ Music City Bowl championship team in 2000.

Gilliam leaves a wife, Kendra, and a 1-year-old daughter Mya. Our deepest sympathy goes out to Rick’s entire family.

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